I couldn’t write this post draft while on trail. I just couldn’t. It’s been months and I can finally step back enough to talk about it. Honestly, the next week or so are all posts I couldn’t write while on trail. My feelings are complicated and it’s taken me a while to work through them.

It was a hard day. Good in retrospect but hard.

I have so many good photos and memories of this day – photos of Secret giving thumbs up and smiling. He was having fun for so much of it. But also, he was feeling frustrated and being unfriendly and like he was for much of the week – vocally saying he didn’t like Party City. Kids are fucking brutal. It’s hard.

We climbed Glen Pass on this day. The climb wasn’t bad. The climb down took forever. Man it just kept going.

We saw some Pikas on the way up. It was pretty.

Secret was so happy on the way up, but he was pushing Lil Flier’s buttons and being unfriendly to her on the top. I can’t remember why he was behaving like that – often I think it’s jealousy of his sister when he wants to spend time with me. He’s been struggling with her being more mobile and independent. She’s not a tiny helpless baby anymore. We sternly communicated limits. And he went down the pass with mom.

It was a very reasonable climb down. The snow track is deep but it was relaxed.

We saw SO MANY PEOPLE coming the other way. It was overwhelming at times.

We had a late lunch at the water, and we kept going to the bridge and camped there. Secret was looking forward to crossing it.